What Was Your Gateway To Steampunk ?

[chicar]

What Work Of Fiction Sow The Seed Of Steampunk In You ?

Mine: The Mysterious Cities Of Gold for historical sci fi in general and Wild Wild West for steampunk in particular.

[Prof Marvel]

All of Tom Swift (and Jr) set the stage for
All of Robert Heinlein which set the stage for
All of Jules Verne

pretty much by age 11 or 12.

[von Corax]

I honestly don't remember a time when I wasn't into the æsthetic. I just remember about twelve years ago I read an article on Wired.com about something called "Steampunk" that was full of photos of that stuff I've always liked.

[Deimos]

I don't know if it was actually a gateway, but ever since reading Sherlock Holmes I've liked the Victorian aesthetic.
Combine that with the visual stuff like the movies based on the Jules Verne stories and I discovered that I liked the fantastical Victorian (or Vic-wardian) steampunk.
And even though I don't care for steampunk that is more 1920s and beyond and the more industrial looking steampunk gadgetry, I can appreciate the work that goes into such creations and builds.

[Prof Marvel]

I don't know if it was actually a gateway, but ever since reading Sherlock Holmes I've liked the Victorian aesthetic.
Combine that with the visual stuff like the movies based on the Jules Verne stories and I discovered that I liked the fantastical Victorian (or Vic-wardian) steampunk.
And even though I don't care for steampunk that is more 1920s and beyond and the more industrial looking steampunk gadgetry, I can appreciate the work that goes into such creations and builds.

OMG I complete forgot about Sherlock Holmes! He came right with/after Tom Swift!
and of course Steam Trains from an early age.
Much much better than diesel.

yhs
prof marvel

[Deimos]

All of Tom Swift (and Jr) set the stage for
All of Robert Heinlein which set the stage for
All of Jules Verne

pretty much by age 11 or 12.

So what of RAH led you to Steampunk?  I've read nearly  all of his so-called Juvenile Fiction  and a couple of of his "mature" novels (his good JF ---there is some not so good--- is far better than his adult stuff) and can't quite see how it led you to steampunk.

and btw... I hesitated to mention it at the time, but your short work of fiction with the berserker soldier...I did see hints of Starship Troopers in it, and was going to ask you if you had ever read it. ( S-T is one of my favorite Heinlein stories, along with  Citizen of the Galaxy and the Star Beast. I have read all of those more than a dozen times each.)

[Captain]

Doc Savage & ERB, especially John Carter.  Neither are specifically SP but they have a similar vibe.

Maybe a series of overly SP stories about Clark Savage Senior's alluded to adventures need written.

SP has given me more appreciation for Jules Verne. 

I am a RAH fan but I am not quite getting that SP connection. 

[Hez]

I saw a poster at the local library for a Vagabond Opera concert and bought tickets on a whim.  I had seen a few images of SP on line but the music combined with the look live on stage got me hooked.   

PS I met Eric Stern of the band at Steamposium a few years later.  He is a real gentleman as well as truly talented.

[Kensington Locke]

I'd read The Difference Engine probably in the early ought's. I knew it was steampunk, but hadn't thought much of the genre.

We'd been doing renfair stuff for prolly 20 years, but around 2015 or so, I decided to do other cosplay stuff. Chainsaw hand guy, Star trek guy, and steampunk guy.

That grew into going to Steampunk November and having 3 outfits for 3 days, and assorted props.

Ultimately, I like to make stuff, so steampunk unlocked new projects like the flight pack for my friend's Steampunk Captain Marvel I built last year.

[Hurricane Annie]

I fell upon a series of inspirational images  of a steamy nature while googling "Tiki Style vintage" for an assignment in my marketing papers.  Steampunk and dieselpunk fitted in with my general aesthetic of vintage, futuristic and industrial.

[MaldonTerry]

Michael Moorcock. 'The Warlord of the Air'. Lovely alternative history. Still remember the pleasure of spotting Lt. Michael Jagger on Imperial service.

[Lazaras]

Beyond the classics of Vern? Honestly the girl genius comics along wit ha slew of short stories set in the conceptual framework of the barsoomian martians.

But truth be told one can thank Alan moore, or rather the lothed lovechild between moore and hollywood that is league of extraordinary gentlemen.

Though I rather like a fan's take o na hypothetical sequel far FAR better than the third book we actually got as it has a far FAR less gleefully destroying any cheer and sense of fun the setting has.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/LXG2AboveAndBeyond

[SolarCenturion]

The first movie I ever saw in a theater was Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka. Steampunk was all over that movie.

After that, I'll have to say Disney. The Steam has always been strong with Disney. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan.

[SeVeNeVeS]

After that, I'll have to say Disney. The Steam has always been strong with Disney. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan.

And of course 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)   

[RJBowman]

Probably the 1982 TV series Q.E.D.
I was a high school freshman when it came out.

[Astalo]

Mostly Jules Verne books and "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." tv series from the nineties.

I think that also some stop motion animations, what I saw in my childhood had a lot of steampunk vibes. For example Jan Svankvajer's surrealistic "Alice" movie from 1988 and that Cosgrove Hall Films tv-series from Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" book.

[Sorontar]

Probably the 1982 TV series Q.E.D.
I was a high school freshman when it came out.

I was a nerdy kid when that was released. I was very disappointed that the sciencey detective show was cancelled. It was my type of show.

Sorontar

[RJBowman]

Probably the 1982 TV series Q.E.D.
I was a high school freshman when it came out.

I was a nerdy kid when that was released. I was very disappointed that the sciencey detective show was cancelled. It was my type of show.

Sorontar

I think the episodes are all on YouTube now.

[David Vivian Haraldson]

My earliest memories of something approaching steampunk are:

• The View-Master adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. (Fabulous archived pictures--including one of Martha Armstong-Hand dressing Captain Nemo--were at the Victorian Adventure Enthusiast.) I must've been 4 or 5.
• An atrociously dubbed version of Ludvík Ráza's adaptation of Jules Verne's Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum, called The Secret of Steel City, broadcast on BBC TV in the after-school schedule. I've been looking for a DVD (Czech title: Tajemství Ocelového města) with Czech audio and English subtitles for about 15 years, with no luck whatsoever. There's an evil genius, a totalitarian city-state, and a giant cannon that fires shells carrying a chemical weapon that freezes people to death.
• Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng Chiang--which I'm afraid has not "aged well," at all.

After that? Proper steampunk? I'm old enough to have been around when GDW first released Sky Galleons of Mars and the Space: 1889 RPG--and when gaming magazines picked up on Gibson and Sterling's The Difference Engine.

[Felscor]

It's hard to pin down to a singular event. True, it could be said it was 2009 when I first used the word "Steampunk" in self identification on a Facebook vampire game, however that wasn't when I first begun to love the Victorian Era aesthetics, weird sciences, or unknowable horrors. That begun with Willy Wonka, Oliver Twist, Mary Poppins and the like. Then there's Treasure Planet when I first grouped those genres in my mind.

So mayhaps it begun there with Treasure Planet?

[RJBowman]

It would have been TV and movies rather than books in my case. The Sam Waterston Q.E.D. tv show was an influence on me, and various movies, mostly produced in the 1960's, that had a steampunk feel.

[CrazedFandango]

I've many influences in the era, but didn't really know it was Steampunk until recently.